Germany’s Kiekert AG began making latches for train cars 157 years ago, has grown to the point where it has its products on one-third of the vehicles on the road. It produced 66 million latches in 2015, and fully 80% of its revenue comes from side door latches. Thus it is essential for the company to continue innovating if it is to keep lower cost suppliers from stealing its business. That’s why there are more than 20 products under development with OEMs, including three of particular interest:

E-Latch

Hot rodders have had a similar system for years that allows them to remove the door handles, replacing them with a flush steel panel. Touching this area completes a circuit, which energizes the lock mechanism, and makes the door pop open. And while Kiekert has shown a very similar design with an LED light ring around the touch zone, production versions — which will debut on an unnamed 2018 vehicle — likely will use a handle that also incorporates the sensor for the keyless entry system. That way, the driver or passenger would simultaneously unlock and open the door when pulling on the short-stroke door handle.

Conventional latching units have counterweights to prevent the door from unlatching during cornering, accidents or other high-inertia situations. These would be eliminated with the E-Latch, making it possible to reduce door weight. Eliminating the latch entirely or using a short-stroke (approximately 4 mm) design also improves interior space by allowing the doors to be thinner. And those latches could be slim, aerodynamic blade-style pulls like those used on 1950s Italian sports cars as they would require much lower force to operate.

Inside, the E-Latch could be integrated into a short-stroke door pull that is part of the door trim panel. In order to satisfy any requirements for mechanical redundancy, this pull would activate a mechanical latch override when forced beyond its normal stroke. As a secondary system, it would not require a large counterweight.

LED Latch

By building an LED lighting unit into the latch body, Kiekert eliminates the separate lights and reflectors of current systems. This not only reduces the number of holes in the door structure, it reduces weight and complexity. The LED’s color and intensity is up to the automaker and any relevant regulation, and can be combined with the child latch switch to shine brighter when that feature is engaged. This technology also can be used on cargo area and trunk latches, and used to provide a trunk light as well as a warning to oncoming drivers. This technology can be used in conjunction with the E-Latch, and is production ready.

i-Protect

Every year Germany has a national “business@school” contest for high school students, and a group of students from Cologne caught Kiekert’s attention with an idea to prevent door dings and dents. A combination of a camera and sensors are used to provide depth of field and proximity, making it possible to determine where a door and any objects in its path are in relation to each other. Hooking these devices to an electromechanical brake eliminates the need for mechanical stops that hold the door in place, effectively creating an infinite door stop.

The beauty of this idea is that it can stop the door before it hits an object, and hold the door in place so an occupant can safely enter or exit while leaning on the door. The i-Protect system also would prevent an occupant from opening a door into oncoming traffic, greatly reducing the potential for serious injury. Also, the camera and sensors also could be used to precisely trigger the side airbags, controlling the inflation rate and duration, for greater protection. Though it only took six months to move from idea to reality, Kiekert says the i-Protect system won’t be ready for volume production much before 2020.